This program was recorded at the 12th Annual Wonderfest, the San Francisco Bay Area Festival of Science.

Wonderfest's broad goals are best described by its mission statement: Through public discourse about provocative scientific questions, Wonderfest aspires to stimulate curiosity, promote careful reasoning, challenge unexamined beliefs, and encourage life-long learning.

Wonderfest achieves these ends by presenting series of scientific events to the general public. At most of these events, pairs of articulate and accomplished researchers discuss and debate compelling questions at the edge of scientific understanding.

Julio Friedmann

Julio Friedmann received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , followed by a Ph.D. at the University of Southern California. After graduation, he worked for five years as a senior research scientist in Houston, first at Exxon and later ExxonMobil. He next worked as a research scientist at the University of Maryland, collaborating with the Joint Global Change Research Institute at the University of Maryland, and the Colorado Energy Research Institute at Colorado School of Mines.

In his current appointment as Carbon Management Program Leader for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he leads initiatives and research into carbon capture, carbon storage, and fossil fuel recovery and utilization. In this role, he has submitted Congressional testimony for the U.S. Senate and California and Wisconsin State Assemblies and testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Jane C.S. Long

Jane C.S. Long is the associate director for energy and environment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Jane C. S. Long looks at replicating volcanic eruptions by spraying sulfuric aerosols into the atmosphere in order to combat climate change. Despite being cheap and effective, she says the after effects of these types of geoengineering efforts are highly unknown.

Julio Friedmann, Carbon Management Program Leader for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, elaborates on the true meaning of adapting to climate change. "Nobody ever says, 'Well, part of adaptation is losing a half dozen major American cities,'" he says. "But that's actually what we're talking about."